Socio-Cultural and Economic Factors Influencing Fertility Behavior in Staffs Working in Health Centers in Juybar, Iran: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background and Purpose: Fertility behavior is affected by various factors. Health workers have a great share in educational programs on fertility behaviors, hence identifying the fertility behaviors of staffs working in health centers is necessary. The aim of this study was to assess socio-cultural and economic factors influencing fertility behavior of staffs in health centers in the northern parts of Iran.  Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed through census on 118 health workers from healthcare services in Juybar, a city in north of Iran. A valid and reliable questionnaire including demographic characteristics and 27 closed questions about the participant's attitudes toward fertility (cultural, social, economic, and individual) in the Likert scale were used. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found to be 0.75. The attitude score was also ranged from 27 to 135. The T-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed in SPSS (V17). Result: There was no statistically significant difference between the tendency to fertility and the variables, such as wife's job, wife's educational level, abortions, the number of pregnancy, and the number of alive children. However, there was a statistically significant difference between tendency to fertility based on cultural attitude and residency status (p=0.04), income (p=0.04), and work experience (p=0.005).   Conclusion: The findings from our study support that, various factors play important roles in the formation of tendency to the fertility, among the most important ones are individual factors. The results also revealed that making any demographic and educational policy by the stakeholders requires that all factors be taken into consideration.